Holding Out For A Hero
by sadlynotginger
Summary: Set in Allegiant. Tobias and the others have gone off to the city to carry out their part of the plan, and Tris decides to pay one last visit to Uriah before the final battle starts. Little does she know, that visit could change everything. [tris/uriah]
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hi! This is my first ever Divergent fic, and there will be plenty more chapters to come so I hope you like it. Please do leave a review so I know about which sort of stuff you'd like to happen in the succeeding chapters and also so that I know what I need to keep up or improve on. Loads of thanks! Happy reading!**

In about two hours, everything will go berserk in here. David will think that they are about to save the city, but we will foil his plan. In about two hours, Caleb will die, only remaining in a handful people's memories. In about two hours, Tobias will return and we will have finished. The world will still remain broken; nothing can change that at this point, but we will have made peace and prevented several lives from being lost.

But that is two hours from now.

Currently I live in the present moment, and in the present moment I am here in Uriah's room, watching the rise and fall of his chest. Engulfed in silence, apart from the occasional buzz from whatever machine is keeping him alive. Given the choice, I would choose to live in this moment, than any moment two hours later. Because in two hours, he will be gone forever.

"Hey," I say. "I know you can't hear me...or maybe you can. I don't know whether or not to trust what the doctors say. They say the others are genetically damaged, and it's a pile of crap to me. So maybe I should start thinking about how they say you're not going to wake up as a pile of crap too."

I don't know why I'm talking to him, or how my hand found its way on top of his, but I don't stop. "It's crazy where we are now, you know. All I ever used to be to everyone was a Stiff. And now I'm Dauntless. Divergent, even. I refuse to see myself as genetically pure, but if ever I really am that now, it's all thanks to you guys. To Christina, to Will-" I swallow hard. "To Tobias...and to you, you big idiot."

My grip tightens around his hand, almost begging for it to respond to my touch. For a few seconds I wait. His eyes don't flinch and neither do his fingers. I'm not crying; I refuse to. He has to be in there somewhere. He has to be.

I use my other hand to tousle his dark hair. "You dumb pansycake." I try to laugh at the memory of his silly nicknames, but it comes out as a wheeze. "Wake up. Stop being an idiot and wake up. I can't afford to lose any more of the reasons I haven't lost myself."

It's a selfish thought, but I'm no longer in Abnegation. I am free to think of myself and the things I want, and I want him to come back. I get a glimpse of the snake tattoo behind his ear and a small smile tugs at the corners of my lips. He has always been striking. No wonder Marlene fell in love with him. He is different in all the right ways. Dauntless, but not cruel. Humorous, but sensitive. Strong, yet supportive. I wonder, had Marlene and Tobias not stepped into the picture, if my slight attraction to him would have grown into something more.

At the beginning, you would notice him for his good looks. These three words would never escape my own lips, but in my head I can hear Christina calling him "total eye candy." But he is more than that. He's the first Dauntless-born to see past my Abnegation self. He made me feel like I belonged. He worried about me when Peter, Drew and Al had attacked me. He comforted me when Christina found out about Will. He took my side, even when I was wrong. The longer I think about, the more I realize that everything he has done to me adds up to something greater. He...

"Uriah." I say his name, though he cannot respond. It is useless to call his attention, even if he could hear me, as there is probably nothing else for him to listen to aside from my uneven voice. It's a good thing, though. I want him to hear me. Him, and no one else. "You saved me."

I'm tempted to plead him to wake up again, but I've run out of words. Slowly and gently, I start to take my hand off of his. I turn to the window to see if anyone's watching, and I think in the corner of my eye I see a figure in white coat...

And I feel a finger twist around mine.

I freeze. Uriah's pinky finger locked itself in mine just as I was about to let him go. I stifle a gasp, and whisper, "Uriah?" His face remains still, as does the rest of him, but then I feel it.

For a fraction of a second, his finger tugs on mine.

Frantically I look back at the figure on the other side of the glass window, and he seems to catch on to the urgency in my expression. He dashes into the room and starts calling for assistance. I feel two gloved hands pull me away, and I shake them off. "Let me go! He's my friend! I need to see him! I need to know he's alive! Uriah!"

They restrain me enough to pull me out of the room, locking the door. My eyes are glued to the window as they use all these machinery I don't recognize. They press two rectangular plates hard on his chest, and he jolts upward though his face remains asleep. I try not to scream.

"Relax," I hear Caleb's voice beside me. "It's called a defibrillator. It's supposed to wake you up and get your heart to start beating again. The hurt is supposed to help."

I don't question his presence. I merely nod and stare back at Uriah. "It's a miracle he got to move. Once the brain has shut down like his did, there's usually no waking up. What did you do? Whack him in the face?" Caleb asks nonchalantly.

I glare at him, but my face softens as I realize that in a few hours, it'll be his life we'll try to bring back. "No...I was just talking to him." "Oh," he mumbles. "That's strange. Biology and medical science aren't my forte, but I know it doesn't take just about any sound to wake a person's nervous system back up."

I almost question the fact that of all people, it was my voice he reacted to, but I am too shocked by what I see. Uriah's body remains limp, but he blinks. Before I become fully aware of the fact, Caleb voices it out for me.

"He's alive."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Thanks for all the lovely reviews! I really appreciate them, and I take each and every one of them into consideration as I try to build this story in my head. To be quite honest with you guys, I'm still pretty conflicted about how I want to end it...but let's see how it goes!**

Though I wish Christina and the others could be here to see him awake, a selfish part of me is glad that I get to see him first and I get to see him alone. His eyelids had begun to fall when I walked in, but as my presence registers in his mind, they perk up. "Look who it is," he croaks.

I can't help but laugh. "You sound horrible."

"I practically resurrected from the dead, and that's the first thing you tell me? And hey, it's better to sound awful than not to be able to make a sound at all," he says with a laugh. Then more seriously, "and I have you to thank for it."

I shake my head. "That was all you. I didn't wake you up. All I did was-"

"Talk to me," Uriah finishes. "I know. But it was your voice that got me back."

I hear Caleb's voice in my head telling me it didn't take just about any sound to wake someone up that way. "I don't think it was just me. There had to be something else. Uriah, everyone thought...no, everyone still thinks you're..."

I can't finish my sentence. I think of Tobias, who's probably failing at thinking of a way to properly break the news to Uriah's family. I think of Christina, who's lost all too many friends and thinks she's about to lose another. And I think of myself, when I had almost left Uriah alone before he grabbed my finger, thinking he was hopelessly gone.

He rubs my arm lightly with his hand. It feels weak against mine, but it's the most he can do. "I thought I was too. It wouldn't have been such a bad way to die, though."

I frown in disbelief. "You're joking, right? Getting hit by an exploding wall isn't exactly under my list of 'perfect ways to die.'"

"Not that. I mean, at least I more or less found out the truth about what's going on outside the city. I've learned to move on from losing Marlene and Lynn-" He pauses, and I know he's lying. It's been so long since we've lost Will but I still haven't completely moved on. I'm not sure I can. "Well, okay, I guess it was a pretty dumb way to die."

I snort. "No kidding. What would make you think that in the first place?"

"I wasn't thinking of everything else. I was just thinking of the last thing I saw before it all went black." I shudder at his last few words. I'm not afraid to die, but I've always found the last moment of your life intriguing. Does everything fade into black slowly, like falling asleep? Or is it gone so quickly you dont even realize it?

I think of Uriah standing by the wall, looking at me and lifting a hand to wave at me. His lips were almost curving into a smile and he looked like he was about to try harder, then...

I try to forget what happens next. I focus on what happened before the booming sound, back when Uriah had been looking at me.

Uriah had been looking at me.

I was the last thing he'd seen before he had almost faded away from us. I don't know what to make of it, so I say nothing. I see no reason why Uriah would want me to be his last memory. I clear my throat. "We've planned something, Uriah. The others and I. That's why they aren't here to see you right now," I tell him. I fill him in on the details of the plan, and his eyes light up at the sound of his family coming back. It pains me to see the same eyes drift off somewhere darker when I continue and say that they're coming here thinking he's hardly alive. When I finish, all he says is, "You can't do that."

Blinking hard at him, my mouth is dry and I don't know what to say. It's a perfectly executable plan. "Excuse me?"

"Let your brother die. I know he's earned himself the Asshole of the Decade award, but you can't, Tris. I know you. You won't."

"I don't want him to do it," I mutter, and I'm not sure if it's a lie. I don't bother thinking about it longer. "He's just the most suitable choice. Even he knows it. That's why he volunteered."

Uriah shakes his head and takes his eyes off of me. I feel something heavy in my chest. Does he think I'm weak for not volunteering in place of my brother? Does he think I'm cruel for letting my brother give up his own life? I almost argue, but he closes his eyes gently with an exhale dismissively.

"Do you want me to let you rest?" I say.

"I'd like that. I think I need to have enough energy for later."

"What's happening later? Did the doctors say anything?"

"They only told me I needed to rest a few nights until I'm back into shape. They're wrong, though. I'll be perfectly fine in an hour or so. That's why I'll be helping you."

I pat him on the head and let my hand rest on the side of his face. He's surprisingly warm. "Good one."

He frowns and grips my hand. I forget how to breathe. His hold on me is tighter now. I'd almost forgotten how strong Uriah could be. "I'm not joking around, Prior. You're not actually thinking of leaving me here while all the action happens, right?"

"That's exactly what I'm thinking. I'll tell Matthew to inoculate you against the memory serum later, but that's all the participation you get. You don't know how happy I am to see you alive, and if you don't mind, I'd like to keep you that way for a while. You're staying here, Pedrad." I try out calling him by his surname, but although I like the way rolls off my tongue, I realize I prefer calling him Uriah much more. I look at him and in his eyes I see hesitance and disappointment. "I'm sorry, Uriah."

He looks at me quizzically. "You don't have apologize to me about something like that, especially after saving me."

"You saved me, I saved you. That's just how it works." I give him the best smile I can manage at a time like this, and he squeezes my hand, grinning. The warmth of his touch is fascinating. I never knew heat could give you chills. I begin to wonder what it would feel like to have his fingers interlocked with mine, or to have his face close enough to mine for me to feel him breathing, to feel his heart beat under his shirt. Then I stop myself. This shouldn't be happening.

His name rings in my head. _Tobias. Tobias. Tobias. _

_Tobias. _

I feel Uriah's fingers massaging my palm. "Yeah," he says sheepishly. "That's just how we work." His eyes dig deep into mine, and I feel myself burning.

_Tobias. Tobias. Uriah. Tobias. Uriah. Tobias. Uriah. Uriah. Uriah. _

_Uriah_.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Okay, so you know that part in Allegiant where as Tris and Caleb are talking, a security lockdown happens and they have to carry out the plan faster? That doesn't happen here (because it makes me too pressed for time and I don't want the story to be rushed). Just thought you should take note of that! Anyway, thank you again for the reviews. I'm glad a lot of you like it so far, but I'm sorry to say that after I saw your suggestions, I feel like a bunch of you are totally going to hate me. Hopefully not though, and I also hope you keep reading! Enjoy! **

After some conversation and a round of Candor that has left Caleb's words ringing in my head, I leave Caleb with Matthew and let him go back to do whatever he thinks he wants to do before he dies-and apparently it's to analyze serums. I let out a sigh of relief that I hadn't chosen Erudite.

There's so much I want to voice out, but as I look at the people around me in the compound, they're all unfamiliar. I can't go back to Caleb or Matthew or Cara. I want to run to Christina, who would understand and be completely honest with her advice. If I wait for her to return, it would be too late to take action. My brows furrow and I pick at my bottom lip in frustration. I don't know what to do, but after a few moments I realize that my feet are already leading the way.

They lead me to the clear glass window outside Uriah's room, and I peer in. His eyes are idly looking about, and I know lying so still is killing him. Finally, his eyes find mine and they invite me in.

"That was fast," he says. "Did you really miss me that much?"

I manage a weak smile. "I needed someone to talk to."

"Where's Four?" Uriah says playfully, but I see there isn't as much humor in his eyes as there is in his voice. Then, he seems to recall what I'd told him earlier. "Oh, right. In the city. Sorry. What's up?"

"I..." My voice cracks. "I don't think Caleb should go."

"If I remember correctly, a couple of minutes ago, you were telling me he was, and I quote, 'the most suitable choice. Even he knows it.'"

I momentarily forget about Caleb. "I don't talk like that!" I scoff.

"I don't talk like that!" Uriah mimics with an identical scoff.

We laugh, and I feel my insides rise. Two minutes with Uriah and I already feel lighter. I hit him lightly on the arm. He winces. My eyes widen and I'm frantic. "Did that actually hurt? Do you want me to get you something for it? I'm so sorry, I totally forgot you just-"

He places a hand on top of mine reassuringly. "It's fine, Tris. It's just.." He turns his arm sideways and I see a large bruise on the other side. "It hasn't healed yet. But that wasn't so bad. It's surprisingly nice to feel pain again. It's a reminder that I'm still alive."

I can't help but think of Caleb. Since he betrayed me and I, along with everyone else, felt almost nothing but total hatred towards him, he must have felt nothing but pain. Pain and guilt, pain and guilt. It isn't a surprise that he's so willing to give up his own life just to get rid of it.

"What do you plan to do, then?" Uriah asks. "Do you think I would've come here to talk to you if I had a plan?"

"Yes, I think you came here to tell me your plan so I can tell you how dangerously stupid it is," he says with a smirk. I bite my tongue. Fair enough. I part my lips to explain myself.

"Well..."

"You're not going in there."

"...What?"

He coughs. "You're not. I recognize the look on your face, Tris. I didn't see it then, but I'm pretty sure it's the same look you had when you gave yourself up to Erudite headquarters. I'm not letting you do that."

"You can't really stop me when you're still stuck on that bed, you know. I know I can hold off the death serum. I've manipulated every serum injected in me before. And I'm not letting my brother die, Uriah. He'll be doing it for all the wrong reasons," I say, partly to reassure myself.

"So will you."

"No. He's doing this out of guilt. I'll be doing it out of love."

I look at Uriah firmly, and his dark eyes stare back into mine, almost defeated. I almost think he is about to argue some more, but all that escapes his lips are the words "I know."

I'm startled at his surrender, but I'm even more startled with what he does next. His brown skin looks pale by comparison and his expression remains weary, but his hand yanks out the needle lodged in his hand and he pulls every single wire off of his body. I'm not sure how he knows, but every piece of medical equipment he takes out of his system he handles with precision and agility. He's been preparing to yank them off himself. I clasp a hand over my mouth. "Uriah-"

He sits up with surprisingly great force, and I almost think he's going to crack a joke about being superhuman or half-alien. Although some things about him make him look frail right now, but I've never seen him look stronger. He gets off his bed and walks toward me. Each of his lithe movements looks driven, and his eyes are focused and awake. He stands in front of me and I see the Uriah I saw at Dauntless initiation. I see him as the Uriah who saved other Divergents with me at Candor headquarters. He looks brave and determined. He takes a long, deep breath, and I feel myself tense. Whatever he is about to say, whatever he is about to do...he's been thinking about this for some time.

He grips my shoulder and I'm alarmed by his touch. "Uriah, you're so hot," I say. "I-I mean, literally ho-"

"I know," he mutters. He swallows and looks at me with wandering eyes, like he's contemplating whether to say more or not. His hand inches its way to the side, towards my neck. His fingers tap anxiously on my skin.

"Please say something besides 'I know.'" I try to imitate his voice to hopefully lighten up the mood. He gives a perfunctory smile, and nods. He leans in closer until his mouth is beside my ear.

"Tris, I know you're doing all this to protect a person you love," he whispers. "But so am I."

I barely have time to process anything when his hand is on my nape and his lips find mine. Though his kiss is filled with urgency and want, it is soft and careful and innocent. I'm engulfed in his heat. Our mouths fit into each other without me even realizing, and then all I see, all I hear, all I smell, all I hear, all I taste...is Uriah.

I remember that Christina had said something about Uriah always being a laugh, never anything serious. I try to grasp the exact words, but I realize it doesn't matter. Uriah is here now, showing me a side of him I'd never seen before. Not even with Marlene. I'm taken aback, and my hands scramble, eventually holding on to his warm arms so I don't fall backwards. I can feel my eyes widen as he pulls back, and they search his questioningly. He looks at me in a way that reminds me of how I used to catch him staring at Marlene, but there was far more in his eyes. So much more that I couldn't fathom, but he offers no explanation. Instead he draws me in again, and gives me three smaller, quicker, yet equally as taking, kisses. I don't want it to ever stop.

But instead of kissing me again, he gives me one more chary look and a smile that's faint, genuine, and pained all at once. That's all I get as he pulls away and I am left breathless and unsteady. I want his arms to fold around me and keep me balanced. I want his lips on mine. I want to smell nothing but the minty scent of his skin and sweat. I want to hear him whisper my name in my ear. I want to live in his dark eyes forever.

I feel myself fill up with endless questions and fluttering butterflies and ineffable hope. I begin to call out his name, but then I hear the doorknob twist and click back into place. My mind is a tangled mess of worrying for both him and Caleb, but before I get to voice anything more out, I hear Uriah's feet meet the ground as he runs down the hallway, away from me.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: I'm so sorry for taking so long to post another chapter. I'm the worst, I know. There's just been a lot of shit going on in my life lately. Also, I apologize for the lack of Tris/Uriah in this chapter. I pinky promise there will be tons of them after the whole thing with the bureau died down. Thank you again for all your reviews! I love you all.**

I have never been more confused in my life. I stand there for a few moments, contemplating my next move, then I bolt out the door and call out Uriah's name, but I hear nothing. I rush to our sleeping quarters, but all I find is his discarded hospital gown.

It takes me a few seconds to realize that finding him would be much too time-consuming. I don't have much time to prepare and sneak into the lab before Caleb gets the chance. The unfamiliar walls and terrain of the compound has only barely been ingrained into my memory. I think that Uriah had been exploring with Christina far more often than I have, so he could be anywhere.

I let out an exasperated grunt. What could he possibly have meant? I fight the urge to bring a finger to my lips. The mere thought of his kiss frustrates me. It was nothing like how Tobias would have done it. Uriah gave off a great sense of urgency that was oddly familiar, almost like he just had to kiss me, but I could feel him being cautious-cautious not to go too far or reveal too much. So many questions circle my head simultaneously and I sprint out the room, desperate for answers.

I recognized the strain behind his stare, but I can't recall now when exactly I'd seen it before. I keep running until I reach hallways I've never gone through. My head is flicking left and right, searching for any trace of Uriah. Instead my eyes fall on my brother. Caleb's gaze is fixated on shelves of ammunition. He must have sensed me coming near, since he rips his eyes away from a row of bullets to look at me.

"Is something wrong?" he asks.

"Weren't you just up there with Cara-" I ask at the same time.

"Yes," we reply simultaneously.

His expression shifts almost instantaneously. The amount of concern behind it surprises me. He almost totally reminded me of my father. "Are you alright?"

"Yes," I answer quickly, "but Uriah's around here somewhere when he's supposed to be on that hospital bed, not trying to give up his life to save yours and mine."

"What do you mean?"

I exhale. I can't let Caleb know about my initial plan to spare his life and face the death serum myself. He would probably let Caleb go through with it, or even if he does find Caleb with me, I would have two people telling me not to go through with it.

"It's a long story," I say instead. "But if we don't find him in a matter of minutes, he could die."

I see him almost flinch at the last word, and I realize why he's down here. He's frightened out of his mind at the thought of his own death. Although Tobias had trained him to fight and Matthew had told him everything he needed to do upon getting inside the Weapons Lab, he was nervous and afraid.

He nods and tells me that I should keep searching, and he would go and ask Cara and Matthew to help us find him.

"Thank you so much." I abruptly wrap my arms around Caleb, and after recovering from a few seconds of shock, he hugs me back. "You're going to be okay," I tell him.

He pulls away and laughs to himself. I frown. "What is it?"

"Nothing. It's nice to see how much you care about whether Uriah lives or dies. And I know it's unfair to think, but a part of me just wishes you felt the same about me."

When Caleb walks away, I know exactly where I need to go next.

Caleb's backpack hangs from my shoulders and it feels heavier than it should. No one in the compound seems to be suspicious of my actions. Everyone else is fixed on their own mission. Aside from the occasional whispering and phones ringing, the only sound that resonates in my ears are my own footsteps.

For each step, I think of a person that I will never get to see again, that I won't get to say goodbye to. Matthew. Amar. George. Cara. Peter. Christina. Caleb. Tobias. Uriah. With every footstep, my chest feels weighted down. But I continue. With every footstep, I convince myself that what I am about to do is for them.

I imagine Caleb doing the same thing, if he were in my shoes. What names would pop into his head? I'm sure he's found a friend in Matthew, and maybe Cara too. But aside from them, he has no real friends left except me. I am all he has left, and he thinks I couldn't care less about his life.

I find myself at the doors Nita and the invaders broke. Two guards stand by them. I fish the detonator and explosives out of my backpack and clutch them to my chest. With my other hand, I hold a gun I'd found and stolen near the shelf of ammunition Caleb had been standing by. I am able to shoot one guard in the chest and the other in the leg. I shoot the latter again more accurately, and he is still.

I run past the doors and down the hallway, and set the explosives against the metal bar where the two doors join. I stumble backwards, making sure I distance myself far away enough from it.

I imagine Caleb doing everything I have just done. Would he have been able to kill the guards? Would he have been able to shoot them at all? Although Caleb had been so ready to let me get killed, I know he would struggle with actually ending someone's life. He would have been shaking so hard right now, on the verge of breaking down, and I would have been somewhere else in the compound, dealing with the guilt caused by believing that I needed my brother to give his own life for me to forgive him.

My memory darts back to what I had told him before: "I would never deliver you to your own execution."

I love Tobias. I love Uriah. But I have loved my brother far longer and I will do anything to save his life.

I hit the button on the detonator, bracing myself for the noise and the debris. Only a few of the flying scraps of metal manage to hurt me, but the explosion still rings in my ears. When the smoke clears, new smoke is sprayed in a vestibule beyond the blasted-open doors and I have a strong feeling it's the death serum being emitted. I catch a glimpse of the suit Matthew had mentioned, but I know I don't have enough time before guards come to check on the explosion and the death serum begins to take effect on me.

Beyond the vestibule must be the Weapons Lab. I quickly stagger forward. I am braced to fight the serum, not only for myself, but for Uriah and Caleb as well.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: While I sometimes pride myself in being a decent writer, I don't think I can ever do justice to how Veronica Roth wrote Tris fighting the death serum. So this chapter begins right after Tris conquered it and David finds her. I highly recommend rereading Chapter 49 of Allegiant before reading this.**

"Don't move," David says, raising his gun. "Hello, Tris."

I am frozen.

He asks me how I inoculated myself against the death serum. I tell him I didn't. He doesn't believe me, but I don't argue and he adds nothing more.

I am impossible.

I still feel its remnants in my skin, and my breathing stays heavy, but I am alive. I am alive when I should be crumpled on the floor, having breathed my last breath. Yet I won the impossible battle.

I am also unarmed.

Everything coming out of David's lips is a blur. I catch a few sentences here and there, but my attention is actually directed towards finding the device that will deploy the memory serum. David thinks I am here to steal the serums. Of course he does. I spot a black box with a silver keypad a few feet away from me, and I know I need to get to it before David manages to kill me. If I continue to stand still, he will shoot me. If I move, he will shoot me. Although he is still in his wheelchair, David is inoculated against the serum, holding a gun, and my gun is somewhere in the hall while I am just about ready to collapse onto the ground. My only possible salvation at this point would be agility.

I try to distract him, telling him that I knew he was responsible for the death of my parents. His attack simulation forced my mother to give her own life to save my own. The accusation brings out an agitated response from David, and he doesn't notice me taking a few steps back. Something in his reaction startles me, though. There was more to the story than he was letting on. I could sense it. It wasn't just the attack simulation, or the lives it took...it was _her_.

Before I can stop myself, I blurt out, "Did you love her?" and David's face is suddenly still.

"I did," he says. "But that time is past."

He loved my mother once. That's why he treated me with so much trust and kindness when we'd arrived. I was given opportunities that weren't even considered for my companions. It wasn't because I was genetically pure unlike Tobias, but because I am a piece of my mother. A piece of what he thought he'd lost forever.

I hear footsteps coming and I wonder if the air is clear of the death serum.

David loved my mother. But while those pent-up feelings may still be lodged somewhere inside him, she is gone. I am not my mother, only my mother's daughter. No amount of my flesh and blood could bring her back to him, and I can tell he realizes this because his finger is lingering on the trigger, ready than ever to rid the world of me.

I don't think. I only lunge for the device, and I hear a gunshot. I feel a searing pain in my body, but my brain does not bother to find out where the bullet went. Instead I recall the code Matthew had made Caleb repeat several times and practically bash the corresponding buttons on the keypad.

A second gunshot fires and I know I am finished. I smash my palm onto the green button, and I drop to the ground. I see a light turn on behind the green button. I hear a beep and a churning sound and I know the memory serum is airborne.

I have done what I needed to, and I close my eyes so my mind can finally rest.

Only it doesn't.

It questions why the second gunshot never buried a bullet in me, or made a sound if the bullet missed and hit the wall. I wonder why David has not made a sound since the shots fired, and I wonder who is so loudly yelling my name.

"Tris! Oh God, no. Tris!"

Arms fold themselves around me and I am lifted off of the floor. I force my eyelids open enough for me to see a figure slumped in a wheelchair, its head a gruesome mess of blood and raw skin. Immediately I turn away, repulsed. I catch a glimpse of dark hair and a brown-skinned face above me before my eyes close themselves once more.

"You're insane," he's telling me. "You're insane and you could have died in there. I'm sure they can get that bullet out of you-you just have to hold on a little bit more, but you're still insane and if I lost you in there, I..." He sighs and doesn't continue.

"Thank you," I manage to get out.

Uriah's voice sounds troubled, but I can sense him trying to soften it for my sake. "You saved me, I saved you. That's just how it works."

"Yeah," I murmur. "That's just how we work."

Somehow I am not totally unconscious. I am well enough to identify that the bullet hit me on my left hip, but not well enough to bear the pain. I feel my face contort and I bury it in Uriah's chest. He's running now, and he's calling for Cara and Matthew.

I'm glad not to have lost my sense of hearing, but I can no longer open my eyes or speak.

"Tris!" I hear Caleb call. "What happened to her?"

"She went in the room. I'm pretty sure she fought off the death serum-she's still breathing-and she managed to release the memory serum. The guards I ran past were unconscious. Before she got to deploy it, David shot her...but I've taken care of him."

"She needs her bullet wound treated right now. She's losing a lot of blood," a woman's voice-Cara-says. "You need to get checked too, Uriah. You just came out of a coma and you aren't rested enough. You should be dead by now, having entered that room."

"I think I fought it off too," Uriah mutters. "There wasn't too much of it left. If I had been there from the moment it was released, I wouldn't be here. I can only fight serums off for so long before my body caves."

"We're all we have right now, though." Matthew sounds panicked. "All the doctors and medical staff would be under the memory serum by now."

"Shit," Cara whispers.

I can hear someone sniffling, and I'm almost positive it's Caleb.

"You're Erudite," Uriah says firmly. "Shouldn't you know how to treat these things?"

"Cara and I know how the procedure goes," Caleb says. "But I-I'm not sure how to-"

"This is your sister!" I've never heard Uriah sound so livid. "Had she not gone in there, you would be dead. There was no way for her to be sure that she could fight off the serum, but she went in there because she loves you."

_There was no way for Uriah to be sure_ _he could fight off the serum either_, I tell myself. _But he went in._

"Don't you think it's about time you learn from her, stop being a coward, and save her?" I feel Uriah's hands tighten around me. His voice catches at his throat. "Please. We can't lose her. I can't lose her."

Caleb begins to say something, but I'm too overcome by shock to pay attention to it. Uriah's grip has faltered, and I am falling onto the ground. I am enveloped by pain when I land, and I realize I've landed on my hip. The bullet must have been lodged deeper into my body by now.

"Shit!" Cara exclaims.

Did Uriah drop me? I am too stunned to feel hurt.

I hear someone scrambling onto the ground. "Uriah! Uriah, wake up!" Caleb says. "He's unconscious."

I feel Caleb's hands around me as he takes me in his arms and stands. His arms are not strong or cradling like Uriah's. I can feel them struggling under my weight. "Matthew, get Uriah. We need to attend to both of them right away. Cara, you'll help me with this, won't you?"

"Of course," I hear her say. "Though I don't think we can do anything to fix Uriah."

A loud grunt comes from somewhere to my right, and I try to imagine Matthew's lean figure trying to carry Uriah's muscular one. If I weren't so engulfed in pain and worry for Uriah, it might have been amusing.

"What do you mean?" Caleb says, walking at a brisk pace. I hear the others follow him.

There's a moment of silence, and I wish I could see what their expressions looked like.

"Oh," Matthew mumbles.

"What is it?" Caleb insists.

Cara sighs. "He isn't hurt. It's just that...we never inoculated him against the memory serum."


End file.
